Tara Palmer-Tomkinson dies, aged 45

Socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, who had been diagnosed with a brain tumour, has been found dead at her home in south west London, sources said.

Palmer-Tomkinson revealed in November that she was being treated for a non-malignant growth in her pituitary gland and had expressed fears that she would die after being told of her condition by doctors.

She told the Daily Mail: “I went to the doctors to talk about my latest blood test results when I got back from skiing in January. I said: ‘What does this mean? Can you translate it?’ And the doctor said: ‘As I suspected, you have a brain tumour’.

“I got terribly frightened. I started thinking ‘I’m going to die, I’m going to die. I’ve only got a couple of weeks to live.’ Stuff like that.”

At the time, Palmer-Tomkinson, who has battled drug problems in the past, also revealed that was suffering with an auto-immune disease which had caused tiredness, joint pain and acute anaemia.

She appeared on reality TV series I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! in 2002 and came second, as well as several other TV shows including celebrity specials of Blind Date and A Place In The Sun.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: “Police were called by London Ambulance Service at approximately 13:40hrs on Wednesday February 8 to an address in Bramham Gardens, SW5.

“A woman, aged in her 40s, was pronounced dead at the scene.

“At this early stage, the death is being treated as unexplained.

“We are not treating this death as suspicious. The coroner has been informed and the next of kin has been informed.”